Actually both near and looking at would be best. You don't want text for a picture showing up when the picture is seen from down the hall. Just use EntityVisible to tell if the picture is actually in view before displaying information text.
The framerate seemed fine but the movement rate was certainly highly variable. Going up the stairs in particular was excrutiating because I was moving so slow. If you aren't doing some sort of framerate independence you should. Something like render tweening or (my preference since it is easier to work with) delta time.
Make sure to tweak CameraRange. I've seen MANY Blitz3D demos with z-buffer problems and this is one of them. The paintings in particular are problematic since they are close to the wall (and are the whole point of the demo!) From only maybe a body length away the polygons flash; I can't get a good look at a painting until it fills my screen, and from down the hall I often can't see any painting at all. You probably don't notice on your computer because your hardware is newer and thus has a finer z-buffer but on my computer, with its coarser z-buffer, there are major z-fighting visual artifacts. If you are aiming for a known system then that doesn't matter but if you are aiming for wider compatibility you should shrink the CameraRange for a better z-buffer. Basically, set CameraRange to be as small as possible while still encompassing the full range you want visible.
The framerate seemed fine but the movement rate was certainly highly variable. Going up the stairs in particular was excrutiating because I was moving so slow. If you aren't doing some sort of framerate independence you should. Something like render tweening or (my preference since it is easier to work with) delta time.
Make sure to tweak CameraRange. I've seen MANY Blitz3D demos with z-buffer problems and this is one of them. The paintings in particular are problematic since they are close to the wall (and are the whole point of the demo!) From only maybe a body length away the polygons flash; I can't get a good look at a painting until it fills my screen, and from down the hall I often can't see any painting at all. You probably don't notice on your computer because your hardware is newer and thus has a finer z-buffer but on my computer, with its coarser z-buffer, there are major z-fighting visual artifacts. If you are aiming for a known system then that doesn't matter but if you are aiming for wider compatibility you should shrink the CameraRange for a better z-buffer. Basically, set CameraRange to be as small as possible while still encompassing the full range you want visible.